The iPhone's Less-than-Sweet 16
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Arachne is back and better than ever.
For those of you who are new here, I'm Alex. I'm a writer with experience in product management for the web. Arachne is my newsletter focused on how technology interacts with creativity, culture, and citizenship.
Over the summer, I was laid off from my full time job. While it is incredibly frustrating, it has given me an opportunity to reevaluate what I really care about. One of my greatest passions is communicating about how technology - consumer tech, enterprise tech, really anything that goes BEEP or CLICK - interacts with our daily lives. I want to leverage that passion into my own enterprise.
This newsletter is only a portion of that. I am planning my first of many live sessions, AI and the Creative Industries, for October 21. I am developing a podcast idea. There are even some TikToks on the editorial calendar.
For right now, here's the plan with the newsletter:
Warps
On Tuesday mornings, you can expect a piece about a current and relevant topic. Is there some fancy new AI tool on the market? Has some antitrust decision been handed down by the government? Tuesdays will be when these current events get covered. I am calling them Warps.
Wefts
On Thursday mornings, I'll be covering broader topics and questions. How bad is it really to leave your lights on? What's next for personal computing? Where does Hollywood go from here? Thursdays will be slightly more philosophical, more vibey. I am calling these Thursday missives Wefts.
Weekend Reading
On Friday mornings, I'll put together a few things to read and pay attention to. This may include news articles (I'll do my best to stay in front of pay walls), podcast episodes, and YouTube videos.
As I embark on this more formalized, editorial approach I really appreciate all of you that have allowed me a space in your inbox. It is my mission with all of this to empower people to form educated, thoughtful perspectives on the world around them. It is a personal dream of mine to make a life out of this kind of analysis, and I am fortunate to have support from people like you.
Now. Here's Warp 1.
The iPhone's Less-than-Sweet 16
Last week, Apple's newest model of the iPhone went on sale. For those of you who don't keep up with this sort of thing, we're up to the iPhone 16 models. There are four of them.
Two base models, two "Pro" models.
Apple Intelligence
The biggest, splashiest, most Wall-Street-satisfying thing that these phones have that will not be coming to previous models* is Apple's integrated system of "intelligent" features collectively referred to as Apple Intelligence.
The Apple Intelligence suite of features promises to bring Apple's iPhones more in line with the feature set available on Google's Pixel phones and Samsung's Galaxy line. These include: text summarization, text re-writing, image generation, and more advanced voice assistance. Additional features include the ability to create your own emoji via artificial intelligence, dubbed "Genmoji," and "Private Cloud Compute," Apple's innovative mixed processing system of both on-device and cloud computing.
Sounds pretty cool. But there's only one problem. If you buy an iPhone 16 or 16 Pro today you will not receive a single one of these features. These phones will ship with iOS 18.0, and the first Apple Intelligence features will become available on iOS 18.1. This version of the operating system will be available soon, and is currently available to freaks like me who are willing to try their luck on beta software.
Of course, Apple would really like you not to know this. They are running an ad campaign featuring Bella Ramsey (who the Arachne newsletter is a huge fan of, fwiw) using all sorts of advanced AI features to get themself out of all sorts of social pitfalls. The ads are great, but the features shown in the ads won't be available, in some cases, into 2025. If you walk into an Apple Store today (which I did) you will see all sorts of posters and copy thrilling the audience with the promise of exciting new software. But pick up one of the phones on those tables and you won't get a single Apple Intelligence feature.
Camera Control
The most notable hardware feature on the new phones is a capacitive button on the side of the phone that Apple is calling the camera control.
Honestly, I think this thing is cool! Essentially all it is is a very tiny laptop trackpad on the side of your phone. You can slide your finger along it to do camera stuff like zoom, change depth of field, and photo styles. You can click it to take a quick picture. I am generally in favor of more buttons, and this one actually seems pretty useful, and I'm excited to see what fun stuff developers use it for.
In the r/iPhone sub-reddit, I've seen numerous complaints about this new button:
The new camera control is a disgrace
by u/ndPPPhz in iphone
Observations have included:
- the button is too high on the phone
- dialing in the zoom is too finicky
- it's too easy to accidentally touch the screen while using the button
I am slightly concerned, though, about water.
Despite the drips in this commercial, I worry about how the camera control button will work in the rain. If you've attempted to use your phone's screen with a few drops on it you'll know that it basically becomes useless. The technology in the screen can't tell the difference between the capacitive touch of a human finger and of a rain drop.
Also? How are people with longer nails supposed to use this thing?
Running it back
Apple's iPhone line has a lot in common with another Silicon Valley institution, the Golden State Warriors. Whereas the Warriors keep running it back with Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and whatever cast of characters appear at the practice facility that fall, Apple keeps serving up practically the same exact iPhones with very little new stuff to offer. Sure the Warriors won a bunch of championships and remain in playoff contention basically every year, but they are no longer the innovative, industry disrupting force they were from 2015-2017. According to some estimates, Apple's market share of the US smartphone market has never been higher, with some numbers coming in around 60%. But they are clearly hitting a wall with their hardware that is not justifying the two year upgrade cycle that used to be incredibly worth it.
So are these new iPhones for you? If you have any iPhone older than the iPhone 12 Pro, I'd say yes. If you are on a plan with one of the providers that offers you basically a no-cost upgrade I'd say yes as well.
But if you have any iPhone with better than 80% of its original battery capacity left, that can connect to 5G, and you are satisfied with the pictures it takes, you are not missing out by skipping this one. And if Apple really disagreed with me they would have found a way to ship these phones with their marquee Intelligence features.
I used to circle the date of new iPhone releases and salivate at the thought of having one of the precious new ones in my hands as soon as was humanly possible. This is no longer the case for me personally and is reflected by the generally subdued response this year's phone reveal had.
To close out Warp 1
Just want to say thanks again for all of you that get this newsletter. I sincerely appreciate it.
A few quick things:
- I'd love to hear from you! Feel free to drop me a voice memo or email at alex@alexschneidman.com
- Share Arachne with your friends, coworkers, employees, pets, or AI companions.
- If you haven't yet, sign up to attend my first Arachne live session on October 21. Here's the link:
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See you Thursday for Weft 1!
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